The Walt Disney Company’s CEO Bob Iger is looking to sell some of the company’s TV and streaming assets, and may even be considering selling the entire company.
Bloomberg reported on the potential sales, referencing Iger’s now infamous “Squawk Box” interview. The interview conducted by David Faber was held at a media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho and Iger’s comments about the writers and actors strikes have gone viral. But during the interview, he also agreed with Faber that ABC and its local stations “may not be core” to The Walt Disney Company. Faber speculated about a possible sale and Iger said, “We have to be open-minded and objective about the future of those businesses.” Bloomberg says, with cable TV on the decline, Iger wants to sell most of Disney’s TV assets, mainly ABC, Freeform, and FX.
Disney’s streaming services have been losing money and subscribers — Disney+ lost 4 million subscribers last quarter. Streaming is expected to have hit a total loss of $800 million in the third quarter.
According to Bloomberg, Iger wants to completely sell or restructure Disney’s TV and streaming business in India. This is actually where Disney+ has had the biggest losses. Disney+ Hotstar, the region’s version of Disney+, lost streaming rights to Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket matches, leading to the service losing 3.8 million subscribers in quarter one and 4.6 million subscribers in quarter two.
Iger does plan to hold onto Hulu, and Disney will launch a combined app for Hulu and Disney+ later this year. The streaming services will still have their own separate apps, at least for now. Disney will more than likely have to buy Comcast’s 33% stake in Hulu in 2024.
Wells Fargo analyst Steve Cahall says selling Disney’s TV networks could get them about $8 billion, which could help offset the cost of that last third. Potential buyers would be financial entities, like private equity firms.
Iger wants to hang onto ESPN, but is looking for a partner for the sports network. Potential partners include sports companies and Apple.
Speaking of Apple, there have been rumors since Iger’s return last November that he will sell all of Disney to the tech company. At the time, Iger called these rumors “nothing more than speculation,” but the sale seems to still be a possibility.
Bob Iger
Bob Iger isn’t known for selling. During his first tenure as Disney’s CEO, he acquired Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm, which have all proven successful purchases.
According to Bloomberg, TV generated 35% of Disney’s revenue ($24.8 billion) prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and over 50% ($7.5 billion) of its operating income.
It’s also worth noting that Iger got his start not just in TV, but in ABC. He began working for the network in 1974, long before it was acquired by Disney. He performed menial labor on TV sets and worked his way up through the ranks. He was named head of ABC Entertainment in 1989. He was president of the ABC Network Television Group from January 1993 to 1994. He was named Capital Cities/ABC senior vice president in March 1993 and then executive vice president in July 1993. The next year, he was named president and COO of Capital Cities/ABC.
When The Walt Disney Company acquired ABC in 1995, they acquired Iger and he worked his way up to CEO of the entire company over the next decade, finally landing the top spot in 2005 after Michael Eisner was ousted. Iger was CEO until retiring in 2020, but returned to the position in November 2022 after Bob Chapek was also ousted.
What do you think of Iger and Disney potentially selling the TV networks like ABC? Let us know in the comments.
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I wonder if he is thinking of doing these things , because of the lawsuit , and feeling like he needs the money to quiet the desantis , but I could be wrong . I don’t think that just selling off ABC and selling off freeform and selling off FX is a good move because there’s still a lot of people that watch cable and also used Disney Plus , and hulu so yeah not sure how I feel about it .
You know, I kind of hope Disney sells (as a whole) to apple, lol. My cousin is a high up executive at Apple, so if they end up owning Disney I might even be able to get discount park tickets. Selfish reason, I know, but I hope Disney sells
It’s true, Disney doesn’t need ABC and FX. And it may not understand the Indian market. But dumping the whole company is crazy. It just needs better management at the top. That means you, Iger.
He won’t sell the entire Walt Disney Company (to Apple). But, the entertainment industry has changed since COVID. More and more people are cutting the cord and watching less linear TV. Streaming is more and more popular. That means ABC and many of the cable services are losers today. It’s just the way the world turns. Even movie going is in decline and may never recover.
Iger will never sell Disney. He’ll sell off the TV networks, but never Disney. He is the only CEO since Walt who truly believes in the company.
Good. Sell off the unprofitable parts and get back to making good movies and investing in the parks for the long term. They are too over extended.
As a former Disney cast member, I feel Disney lost out on earning billions of dollars, a ton of innovation and income generating opportunities due to their outdated no unsolicited idea policy. As an award winning inventor in 2004 I approached Disney CEO Micheal Eisner hoping to team up with Disney to build a similar website to what later became YouTube and Facebook..plus so much more. I have drawings and code plus website and patent applications to prove this. I still have huge opportunities with my new products that could help Disney grow. Disney was once a company leading innovation and creativity however Disney has made it harder than most companies today to work with them due to endless red tape and outdated closed innovation policies. Disney should try to hold on to abc network and lead the industry with new tv programing which I can help with, grow in USA as patriotic company, outsource less, sell less , innovate more and keep things as is for 3 years prior to sale. Innovation is needed more than a sale , that is why abc and traditional tv viewership is down . Sadly top companies don’t practice what Harvard Business School recommends open innovation so when companies like Disney loose billions it because they not following what research proves will help them grow . Disney lives in fear of review of new ideas with their red tape policies. If Walt Disney was alive today he fail Bec Disney does not practice open innovation , for getting a meeting is so hard to do , it time Disney hires an open innovation leader , me . It is near impossible to share a new tv show concept with abc, a new technology or product with Disney, due to red tape out dated no unsolicited idea polices . Luckily their accelerator is helping a little far more work needs to be done .Help me get a meeting with CEO of Disney and I might be able to help Disney earn billions . Help wanted from an award winning prolific inventor recognized by the history channel as a modern marvel. DarrellFertakos.com
It would be wise for Disney to sell off ABC. Legacy networks are struggling, having shows that no one watches. As most consumers move to streaming, the legacy networks will become obsolete. Personally, I feel the shows that streaming services offer are better quality, better content shows. The network shows just feel fake and almost “soap opera-ish”. The only thing people watch legacy networks for is the sports nowadays. It’s time for Disney to cut ABC lose.
At this point, the loss of the company could be the saving of it. Iger has proven ill-equipped to shore up the company’s losses, get it back in good graces with the state of Florida, complete long-overdue construction projects, or even simply maintain the parks to the standard that Disney was known for just a few years ago. He and the Board of Directors are more concerned with pushing unpopular social politics and supporting pornography in schools and grooming children into transgenderism than producing quality entertainment. Their acquisitions of Marvel and Lucasfilm were performing well until they started injecting those narratives into their products as well. Maybe a company that doesn’t feel the need to try to be a political entity would be able to put Disney back on the rails of being an entertainment company again.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has won, Iger and Disney lost.
Somebody is more financially sound than me. Can you explain to me if he sells the whole entire Disney company would he be out of a job?
Maybe is they went back to family entertainment and stopped pushing the agendas of less than 5 percent of the population people who actually used their services and pay the bills would come back. I avoid anything Disney now. ABC, ESPN and most other networks they own or are a part of are more political than entertainment. Most sports fans laugh at ESPN now. The parks are overrated and overpriced now. I would rather put 10 grand into going abroad or on a top quality trip than wasting in at Disney. What a shame they have destroyed the company and vision of a great man.
Iger, lost his midas touch!
Time to sell.
Network TV is a losing proposition now so it’s probably time to sell it to a right wing billionaire so they can continue their takeover of the American news media.
I don’t know why Walt Disney is loosing money and I don’t know why CEO could loose that much money for Disney
None of this surprises me. Disney is over-extended. It’s obvious, and it’s unnecessary. Iger considering selling Disney to Apple doesn’t surprise me either, but Apple buying Disney would be a stupid move for Apple. These conglomerates can try to eek out some extra market cap when the economy is booming, but when it tightens, all these extensions quickly become dead weight. How about focusing on what you’re good at? How about re-investing in what you’re good at? Maybe the almighty dollar now isn’t actually a better investment than focused R&D on the next revolutionary inovation. Or maybe, just maybe, megalomania is not a sustainable business model. GHASP!
The fact that Disney+ is called Disney+ is the reason I have never even considered it. I outgrew Disney at least 40 years ago.
who the hell would want to buy the greedy company?
Great !!! Cut the fat get back to theme parks. Iger is the man !!!!!! Chapek and his idiots tried their best to topple it.
In my opinion, Disney has lost its very unique mission of being an ‘American Family’ entertainment Corp.
Instead, they decided to get involved in areas that should never have been on their agenda.
Selling to Apple is a good fit.
Why wouldn’t he. He’s run the company into the ground. Not a segment of that company is in a better place than when he returned. Maybe he should give up his perks and parachute instead of laying everyone and their mother.
I was led to believe Igor was the Messiah whose return was going to save Disney from this kind of break up. Now it seems the problem all along was over paying for digital assets and attempting to enter an already crowded streaming environment. This was dine in the name of growing the stock price. Very reminiscent of another CEO that walked on water until his company, GE, almost imploded from a horrible acquisition strategy. That would be Jack Welch.
Selling some of the streaming services makes sense. There are propeties in there that are not core Dismey. The idea that one company can take over and sustain everything is a capitalists dream and societies nightmare. But the idea of selling of the entirety of Disney to anothe company shouldn’t even be considered. It would be the end of Disney. Nothing of Walt’s dream would survive.
Gee I wonder why they lost 3.8 million subscribers in quarter one and 4.6 million subscribers in quarter two? Have you seen thier streaming service. Not family friendly. DISNEY, look at your fan base! Who wants to watch Disney? Families with children.
I’ve been a subscriber to Disney+ since it first started and have no plans to give up my subscription. I hope they don’t get out of the streaming business completely, at least in thr USA.
As far as selling ABC and ESPN, it may be a good idea to free up capital, which then could be used to update the parks and/or produce new content. As long as they keep making family friendly content, my family and I will continue to be Disney fans.
Iger is a failure as a leader. If LucasFilm looks like a success to you then you’re simply dumb. That would be like me buying a business and running it into the ground but saying it was successful because the business coasted off of its previous accomplishments/personnel the first few years I owned it. The test for whether or not you should buy/own something is what you bring to the table that can make what you’re buying even more successful.
The culture Iger has fomented at the company has destroyed value for customers and shareholders. Only the irrationally childish woke employees and the irrational Disney Adults have been on board with this guy. He gave you guys Chapek ffs who was an obvious disaster for the parks…
I can see Iger testing the waters to potentially ‘sell’ ‘/ ‘trade’ cable networks and the cable distribution of ESPN content to Comcast for the remainder of Hulu. Comcast is the only beneficiary of these networks as it is a cable television provider and would benefit from the decreased fees of vertical integration of channels. ABC however can not be sold to Comcast since they own NBC, so it would either have to be IPOed or sold to another buyer. Disney keeping ESPN production and streaming rights would allow them to build it into a streaming platform.
From a technology standpoint I would like to see an Apple Disney Combination, but from a cultural and historical standpoint I like an independent Apple and Disney as while they share a lot of content partnerships they are two VERY different businesses and AppleTV+ is a accessory/ hobby to introduce a more holistic Apple ecosystem of services.
When I was a kid in the 60s Disneyland cost a family of 5 maybe $100 including meals and souvenirs . Most any family could afford to go. Now it’s around a $1000 if you buy all the passes and only the middle class and up can afford it. Not what Walt would want
We dropped Hulu last year and Disney is about to be dropped as well. I’d rather spend money on buying books and reading as streaming content is too expensive and lacks any quality content (other than the NatGeo on Disney.) Netflix content is even worse.
It’s not making money because they show terrible content and nothing interesting to watch. Improve content and people will pay for the service.
I’m going to save a lot of money dropping streaming services and going back to reading books. Companies need to start paying attention to the customer! Go woke, go broke!
I don’t quite understand what you mean by Bob Iger ” deciding to sell all of Disney. ” Isn’t Disney a corporation? Can he decide to make any buying or selling decisions without permission from a board of directors? I apologize if I have misread it just sounded like he’s in complete control of the company, is that the case?
Bob Iger seems to have a plan. Will he bring down network television with his decisions? I pray not.
The cost of the required things in life are going up, I feel that the grocery industry as a whole are gauging the consumer, the aftereffects are for many like my family that we cannot afford streaming services and esspecially the cost to take our family to a Disney park which is a major wish for us
Please don’t sell Disney to Apple. The cost to the families wanting to Vacation and a Disney park would most likely rise extrementaly
Not going to happen Iger is a smart man but letting go of ABC where he started not a smart move
Going to say doubtful. Makes no sense
…Disney….is dust in the wind…
I recently said to my financial consultant that Igor would be replaced by Ichon if Disney didn’t abandon the woke script it us using to run the company. A guy needling a shave in a to-to shouldn’t be selling a Cinderella dress to a little girl. Indiana Jones Jr. Should have come home from war. The Seven Dwarfs should not be casted with a crew from Con-air! Okay, 7 little guys who own a diamond mine and have pretty servant might need some revamping, but not the dirty dozen.
please do not sell Disney to some corporate conglomerate that does not care about families and the expenses they have to pay. hope you keep the parks open. wish you’d have off season or off peak weeks when prices are reduced so low income families could come enjoy the fun
Bob. Don’t sell the company to anyone. Disney should remain independent from American media studios and technical companies. The company is having an economic problem I got it. If you sell Disney to Apple or other competitors you will lose fans and everything Walt has built for.
I like Bob Iger’s sound leadership with this company. If he were to sell this company asset (ABC Network) it may or may not be a good thing. Maybe if they redid a Live Disney world broadcast with live events and entertainment like Walt Disney did back in the 50’s (the Mickey mouse club) at least once a week to continue to promote the companies logo and entertainment choices ,services and vacation packages as well as new movies ,just maybe keeping the ABC Network may prove to be more profitable than selling it.
But I’m no one to know. Just my opinion. Jlr…